Built-in wiper system for single and multiple planar surfaces

ABSTRACT

A set of wiper blade assemblies built into a fixed frame and along the edge of a movable planar surface whereby the opening and closing of a movable panel engages both the wipers to wipe two parallel planar surfaces. The fixed wiper mounted to the frame squeegees water and particles away when the movable plane or door is slid opened or closed. Simultaneously, the movable panel with a mounted wiper serves to wipe the other parallel planar surface. Another embodiment has more than two wiper assemblies mounted along the edge of two or more planar surfaces and a fixed wiper across the frame whereby moving any of the movable plane engages all the wipers to wipe water and particles away from the planar surfaces. Another embodiment has one fixed wiper assembly mounted from the top to the bottom of the frame whereby moving a single plane engages the wiper to wipe the surface of the single panel. An alternative embodiment has all the wiper assemblies fixed into the frame and engage the wipers when the movable panels are slid opened or closed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/856,421, filed Jul. 19, 2013.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

REFERENCE TO APPENDIX

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of wipingimplements, and more specifically, to an improved wiper system forwiping sliding planar surfaces such as glass, plastic, and tiled paneswithout the need for manual squeegeeing.

B. Discussion of the Prior Art

Several wiping improvements have been attempted such as a squeegee withintegrated track system for use in shower doors and windows by Farmer etal. Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 8,021,241) The Farmer Patent consists of asqueegee with handle mounted on a set of tracks. To operate, one has touse the squeegee with handle to clean the surface along a hanged set oftracks on a shower door. This maybe useful if the shower enclosure onlyconsists of one glass panel. With common shower doors, at least twosqueegee and two sets of tracks would need to be installed to clean twopanels of the sliding glass doors. It is also cumbersome to deal withhandles and would be quite dangerous to have battery operated automatedsqueegee in the shower in one of its embodiments.

The Meaden et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,764) discloses a retractablebathtub shower curtain in place of shower doors with built in wipersthat squeegees water out of the retractable curtain before it is storedin its casing. This invention is limited to squeegeeing water away fromretractable surfaces and does not address non-retractable planarsurfaces that are widely common in shower enclosures.

Similar retractable shower barrier enclosures disclosed by Bowen (U.S.Pat. No. 7,328,466) whereby a retractable splashguard and Shearon (U.S.Pat. No. 5,794,281) whereby a vertically moveable flexible water barrierboth works to return water back to the bathtub but does not addressglass or plastic doors commonly found in shower enclosures.

The Shepherd Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,755) is a wiper attached to thebottom of a shower door or window, whereby water and other particles arewiped cleaned when the shower door or window is opened or closed.However, this does not address the problem or chore of keeping wetplanar surfaces such as shower doors and windows.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a built-in wiper system designed to wipe singleand multiple parallel planar surfaces when at least one of the plane isslid open or close. This invention eliminates the frequent need tomanually squeegee or wipe liquid from glass, plastic, or tiled panesfrom sliding shower enclosures, sliding windows, and sliding doors.

The invention is primarily comprised of at least one wiper bladeassembly wherein the first wiper blade assembly is mounted on the frameand the subsequent wiper blade assemblies are mounted along the edge ofthe planes. Each wiper blade assembly is comprised of a wiper blade anda blade housing that holds the full length of the blade.

The wiper blade assemblies are mounted whereby the wiper blades maintainconstant pressure against the planar surface and allows for even wiping.Once installed, the first wiper blade assembly mounted on the frame willwipe the surface of the first plane when it is slid opened or closedwhile the second wiper blade assembly mounted along the edge of thefirst plane will wipe the surface of the second plane.

An alternative embodiment has all the wiper blade assemblies mounted onthe frame wherein sliding the plane will wipe the planar surfaces.Another embodiment consists of one wiper assembly mounted to the frameand will wipe the planar surface when the shower, window, or door isslid opened or closed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying illustrations provide visual understanding for theparts and how each contribute to the current invention:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a door or window assembly with the wiperblades installed.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective showing the wiper blade assemblyinstalled.

FIG. 3 is a top view cross section taken along line 1-1 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the door or window assembly showing thesliding door or window partially open.

FIG. 5 is a top view cross section taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view where both panels are partially opened andthe surface is partially wiped.

FIG. 7 is a top view cross section of the panels and wiper blades wipingthe surfaces as both panels are moving taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a closed single-paneled door or showerenclosure.

FIG. 9 is a top view cross section taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

The present invention will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings. FIGS. 1-5 illustrates a sliding door or showerenclosure where there is one fixed panel and one movable panel in both aclosed position and half-opened position. In addition, FIGS. 6-7illustrations an alternative embodiment with two movable sliding door orshower enclosure in a half-opened position to show partial results.FIGS. 8-9 illustrates another alternative embodiment with only onemovable panel.

FIG. 1 illustrates the preferred embodiment of a sliding door or showerenclosure frame 15 that holds a movable panel 16 and a fixed panel 18.Furthermore, both panels 16, 18 have interior planar surfaces namelymovable planar surface 17 and fixed planar surface 19. The inventioncomprising of wiper blades 11 and blade housings 12 are mounted alongthe longitudinal length of the frame 15 and on the interior planarsurface 17. The movable panel 16 can be slid opened or closed using ahandle 20.

Referring to FIG. 2, a closer perspective view illustrates the installedwiper assemblies 13, 14 wherein it maintain constant pressure againstthe planar surfaces 17, 19 and allows for even wiping. A top view crosssection as shown in FIG. 3 illustrates a fixed wiper assembly 13 mountedto the frame 15, where it functions to wipe the planar surface 17 of themovable panel 16 and a movable wiper assembly 14 mounted along the edgeof the movable panel 16, where it functions to wipe the planar surface19 of the fixed panel 18.

The invention eliminates manual squeegeeing of planar surfaces 17, 19 byengaging the wiper assemblies 13 simply by opening or closing a movablepanel 16 as illustrated in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. Both illustrations depictthe movable panel 16 being half opened and show partially dry planarsurface 17. As shown in FIG. 5, the fixed wiper assembly 13 on the framewipes water and particles away from the movable planar surface 17 whenthe panel 16 is slid opened; while the movable wiper assembly 14 mountedon the movable panel 16, wipes water and particles away from the planarsurface 19 of the fixed panel 18.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternative embodiment where there are two movablepanels 16 and both panels 16 are partially opened. Referring to FIG. 7,although the panels are both movable, one of the wiper assemblies 13 isstill fixed to the frame while one of the wiper assemblies 14 is mountedto one of the movable panel 16. In this embodiment, sliding the movablepanel 16 closest to the frame 15 wipes both planar surfaces 17, 19;while sliding only the outer movable panel 16 will only wipe one planarsurface 19.

In another embodiment, see FIG. 8, where there is only a single movablepanel 16 on a door or shower enclosure, a fixed wiper assembly 13 ismounted to the frame 15. The fixed wiper assembly 13 can also be mountedon the wall 21 where the interior surface of the movable panel 16 iswiped when the panel is slid opened or closed.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A mounted wiper system comprising: (a) atleast one wiper blade; wherein the wiper blade allows for bi-directionalwiping movements; wherein the wiper blade touches the longitudinallength of the planar surface; wherein the wiper blade is held in placeby the blade housing; (b) at least one blade housing; wherein at leastone blade housing is fixed from the top to the bottom of the framedshower enclosure or door which allows for wiping the moving surface(e.g. Surface A); wherein a blade housing is mounted along the edge of amovable panel (e.g. Panel A) which allows for wiping the oppositesurface (e.g. Surface B) when the prior panel (e.g. Panel A) is slidopened or closed;
 2. A mounted wiper system comprising: (a) at least onewiper blade; wherein the wiper blade allows for bi-directional wipingmovements; wherein the wiper blade touches the longitudinal length ofthe planar surface; wherein the wiper blade is held in place by theblade housing; (b) at least one blade housing; wherein one or more bladehousing is fixed from the top to the bottom of the framed showerenclosure or door which allows for wiping one or more surface when atleast one panel is slid opened or closed;
 3. The mounted wiper system ofclaim 1, further comprising of two or more blade housing mounted alongthe edge of subsequent movable panels (e.g. Panel A, Panel B, Panel C)which allows for wiping the subsequent opposite surfaces (Surface B,Surface C, Surface D) when the prior panels (e.g. Panel A, Panel B,Panel C) are slide opened or closed.
 4. The mounted wiper system ofclaim 1 and claim 2, wipes parallel interior planar surfaces or parallelexterior planar surfaces.
 5. The mounted wiper system of claim 1 andclaim 2, wherein the wiper blades are made of flexible plastic.
 6. Themounted wiper system of claim 1 and claim 2, wherein the wiper bladesare replaceable.
 7. The mounted wiper system of claim 1 and claim 2,wherein the blade housings are made of stiff metal, glass or plastic. 8.In sliding window embodiment, the wiper blade system in claim 1 andclaim 2 is mounted left to right of the window frame.